NBC: Does Mitt Romney Look Like He's 'Rooting for Failure' of the Economy?

At the top of Monday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer warned
Mitt Romney against going after President Obama too hard on the stagnant
economy: "Romney's campaign using the rise in unemployment to target
President Obama's record on the economy, but can he make his point without sounding like he wants the recovery to fail?" [Listen to the audio]

Later, fill-in co-host Savannah Guthrie talked to left-wing MSNBC host
Chris Matthews about the GOP's economic message and teed him up to slam
Republicans: "I mean obviously they see that the bad economy will
ultimately be good for his [Romney's] prospects, but they don't want to be perceived as rooting for failure." Matthews ranted: "But of course they are. You know, they've got a spring in their step now. This is great news for the Republicans.....All things being equal, they don't have to do anything except enjoy the economic downturn."

Matthews then struck a conspiratorial tone as he blamed the business community for the lagging economy:

...it's not just the billion dollars that are going into the super-PACs
from the right-wing, people like the Koch brothers, think about the $2
trillion that big business is holding back from investing....big
business is the President's big enemy right now. He's got powerful
enemies, and they're using that economic input not to help him but
probably to play it very safe right now until the election....basically
they're rooting against Obama to succeed. They don't want this recovery
to come big time between now and November.

Here is a full transcript of the June 4 segment:

7:00AM ET TEASE:

MATT LAUER: Blame game. Mitt Romney's campaign using the rise in
unemployment to target President Obama's record on the economy, but can
he make his point without sounding like he wants the recovery to fail?

7:11AM ET SEGMENT:

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Chris Matthews is host of Hardball on MSNBC. Chris, good morning to you.

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Good morning, Savannah.

GUTHRIE:
Kind of a one-two punch for the President on Friday, that disappointing
jobs report and then Wall Street tanking. I know you consider this to
be a game changer. Is that because economic perceptions are now really
hardening, it's that close to the election?

MATTHEWS: Well, that's what everybody thinks. That these decisions
voters make are in May rather than October. I question that. I think
people are going to be watching this election all through the
presidential debates this fall. All three of them.

It seems to me, though, the way I look at politics is like baseball.
The voters are the manager of a baseball team. They're looking at the
pitcher on the mound. They're not looking at the bull pen. The problem
with the Obama campaign all the way through, and it's more acute now
since the Friday news came in, is they've tried to focus on the player
in the bull pen, the pitcher out there. That's not the way the voter
looks at it. The voter looks at the guy out there on the mound, is he
getting them out? Is he leaving too many men on? Is he letting the count
go too long? They want to know if he's still got his stuff. Can he put
the team out on the other side? Can he win this economic war with this
recession we just went through? And I think that's the problem.

And now with the numbers popping up, with the numbers going to 8.2,
only 69,000 jobs, less than 2% growth rate so far this year, which to me
is the most devastating news, he has got to come out with a performance
on the mound now, which means he's got to talk job creation, challenge
Congress to a big jobs program, huge jobs program on highway building,
all kinds of stuff like that, make them say no. Number two, he has to
lead the way towards a debt reduction program. Short-term job creation,
long-term debt reduction, he has to be the leader on the mound and
perform out there, because the conditions aren't going to get that much
better between now and November. It's about leadership in a tough time.
It's not about changing conditions. It's about who's leading us in
dealing with them.

GUTHRIE: Yeah. Chris, fair enough. But what about Governor Romney? I
mean obviously they see that the bad economy will ultimately be good for
his prospects, but they don't want to be perceived as rooting for
failure.

MATTHEWS:
Well, that's right. But of course they are. You know, they've got a
spring in their step now. This is great news for the Republicans. They
know they can walk in, if this economy continues to go downhill, if the
unemployment goes to 8.5, if the growth rate stays below 2, they're
probably going to win the election. All things being equal, they don't
have to do anything except enjoy the economic downturn.

And that's – and by the way, it's not just the billion dollars that are
going into the super-PACs from the right-wing, people like the Koch
brothers, think about the $2 trillion that big business is holding back
from investing. Now they're obviously doing that primarily for business
reasons. But when you look at their sensitivity about things like equity
last week, with Clinton being sensitive to that and Cory Booker, big
business is the President's big enemy right now. He's got powerful
enemies, and they're using that economic input not to help him but
probably to play it very safe right now until the election. Then they
can say, "We're waiting for better regulatory regimes, we're waiting for
better corporate tax rates." But basically they're rooting against
Obama to succeed. They don't want this recovery to come big time between
now and November.

GUTHRIE: Well, we've got to leave it there. Chris Matthews, thanks. And a reminder, you can catch Hardball week nights at 5:00 and 7:00 Eastern on MSNBC.

-- Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow Kyle Drennen on Twitter.

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